Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta
The Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, or California Delta, is an expansive inland river delta and estuary in Northern California. The Delta is formed at the western edge of the Central Valley by the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and lies just east of where the rivers enter Suisun Bay, which flows into San Francisco Bay, then the Pacific Ocean via San Pablo Bay. The Delta is recognized for protection by the California Bays and Estuaries Policy. Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta was designated a National Heritage Area on March 12, 2019. The city of Stockton is located on the San Joaquin River at the eastern edge of the delta. The total area of the Delta, including both land and water, is about 1,100 square miles (2,800 km2). Its population is around 500,000.
Northern California's Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta. The Sacramento River flows into the delta from the north and the San Joaquin River from the south through Stockton.
Part of the Delta viewed from above Sherman Island, with the Sacramento River above and San Joaquin River below
The Old River, a former channel of the San Joaquin River located in the southwestern Delta
An 1850 drawing of the Sacramento River in the Delta, showing the lush foliage that made up much of the virgin Delta.
A river delta is a landform shaped like a triangle, created by the deposition of sediment that is carried by a river and enters slower-moving or stagnant water. This occurs at a river mouth, when it enters an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, reservoir, or another river that cannot carry away the supplied sediment. It is so named because its triangle shape resembles the uppercase Greek letter delta, Δ. The size and shape of a delta are controlled by the balance between watershed processes that supply sediment, and receiving basin processes that redistribute, sequester, and export that sediment. The size, geometry, and location of the receiving basin also plays an important role in delta evolution.
Lena river delta
Satellite image of the Amazon Delta captured by NASA in 2005.
NASA satellite photograph of the Nile Delta (shown in false color)
Sacramento–San Joaquin (California) Delta at flood stage, early March 2009